The Importance of Proper Vehicle Maintenance: A Guide to Recalibrating Advanced Safety Systems and Choosing the Right Seats

When it comes to vehicle maintenance, there are several factors to consider in order to ensure that your car is running safely and efficiently. One important aspect of vehicle maintenance is recalibrating advanced safety systems. These systems, which include features such as lane departure warning, blind spot detection, and forward collision alert, can be affected by changes in ride height or other modifications made to the vehicle.

A few years ago, researchers were looking into ways to help senior citizens maintain their drivability, either by accessing the car or by driving it themselves. One of the features they considered was a cushion that allowed for easier entry and exit from the vehicle. However, one of the cautions in the owner's manual warned against using other cushions between the passenger and the seat, as this could interfere with the functionality of advanced safety systems such as pressure sensing and weight distribution.

In fact, many modern vehicles have features such as active head restraints that adjust to help mitigate whiplash injury. However, these systems are designed to work when the force of the body is applied in a certain way, and if there is a disconnect between the torso and the seat, this functionality may not be available. Furthermore, some seats have pressure sensing technology that can detect changes in weight distribution, which could also affect the performance of advanced safety systems.

When it comes to choosing the right seats for your vehicle, there are several factors to consider. One important consideration is the type of lumbar support system. Some vehicles come with integrated lumbar support, while others require a separate cushion or seat pad. However, if you choose to use a separate lumbar cushion, it's essential to ensure that it does not interfere with the functionality of advanced safety systems.

Another factor to consider when choosing seats is the type of lumbar support. Some vehicles come with four-way lumbar support, which provides both height and tilt adjustment, while others have only two-way lumbar support. Four-way lumbar support is ideal for drivers who need to adjust their seating position frequently, as it allows for both height and tilt adjustment.

In addition to the type of lumbar support, it's also essential to consider the diameter of the vehicle's wheel package when switching from summer tires to winter tires. Narrower winter tires are designed to cut through snow better than wider tires, but they can affect the overall ride height of the vehicle. If you do decide to switch to narrower winter tires, make sure that the overall diameter of the tire and wheel package remains the same.

According to some manufacturers, recalibration is necessary for advanced safety systems after even minor adjustments or modifications, including changing the wheelsizes on your car. This is because many modern vehicles rely on camera systems and radar technology to detect obstacles and predict potential hazards. If these systems are not calibrated correctly, they may trigger false alerts or fail to respond properly in certain situations.

However, if you're only making changes that do not affect the overall ride height of the vehicle, such as switching from summer tires to winter tires, it's unlikely that recalibration will be necessary. In fact, many experts agree that the most common reason for recalibration is related to windshield damage or other modifications that affect the camera systems.

Regardless of whether you need to recalculate or not, it's essential to regularly check your tire pressure and ensure that your winter tires are properly inflated. This is especially important during the colder months when cold weather can cause tire pressure to drop.

For more information on advanced safety systems, vehicle seats, and vehicle maintenance, visit consumerreports.org.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWe share our first impressionsof the all new 2020 HyundaiSonata, then weanswer your questionsabout touchscreens versus knobsand why tires can get so noisy.Next on Talking Cars.Hey, welcome back.I'm Keith Barry.I'm Gabe Shenhar.And I'm Jennifer Stockburger.And today we're goingto get right into it,and start talking abouta new car that we bought.It has a digital key,which you can lockand unlock with your phone.It has really goodlane centering.It will keep you and, sort of,steer for you most of the time.It has interestinglighting accentsthat creep all the wayup the hood of the car.They say it can park itself.What do we think this car is?Sounds fancy.It does.It does.Does it sound likeit comes from--Pop quiz, huh?Maybe California?Not quite.Yeah, no.It comes from alittle further East.Well, you're talkingabout South Korea.But I'm talking Alabamabecause it's built in Alabama.Right.Even better.Yeah, East-- theEast, East, East.Exactly.It's the 2020 Hyundai Sonata.And this car is interesting.It's like a realdeparture from anythingthat Hyundai's donein a little while.It's like a new directionfor them, right?Right.I mean, the car'salways been a value.The Sonata, we've alwaysconsidered a good value.But all of theseniceties, and safety,for such a reasonableprice, it's really,I think, going to give itscompetitors, Accord, Camry,Legacy, a run for their money.My first impression,styling wise, it definitelygot more slopey.Two things thatbothered me with that,and I'm just not a fanof that styling cue.I'm sure it's moreaerodynamic and everything.Access gets hurt a little bit.It's super roomyonce you're in it,but you do have to duck a littlebit, particularly the rear.And for me, I haveshort legs, so Itend to have to pull forward.But I also like alot of seat height,and I kind of runinto the roofline.I don't get to use as muchseat height as I would like,so I have to shrink down.But drivability wise,very, very nice.I called it overall smooth.The steering,powertrain, et cetera.OK.Yeah, so it reallygoes back to the Sonataof two generations agoin terms of styling,whereas the previousgeneration was kind of upright.Yes.And they just went away fromthat eye catching styling.Now they're back to it.Well, I think this isdefinitely eye catching.Oh, it is.It kind of looks like a fish.You don't know it'sa Sonata at first.I was just going to say,it looks like a fish.Like a shark.Yeah.But a good fish,an attractive fish.And despite the styling, andthe styling,the visibility, outwardvisibility is pretty good.Yeah.Sometimes that hurts.The gets short.So it's interesting though.We're seeing sort of a decreasein sedan sales overall.Those competitors you mentioned.Some folks are just completelygiving up on sedans entirely,like Ford, and mostly GM.But Hyundai's sort ofdone a total departure.And they've madesomething that lookslike nothing else onthe road, somethingthat's really polarizing.Two of us say itlooks like fish.And then they filled itwith all this technology.So it sounds like they'resort of doubling down on,we're going to make something,and you're going to like it,and you're not.What about the price on this?You mentioned value.Where is this?Right.So it is in line.We paid 26 for ours.Base is 23, 6.It can go up to 33, 5.And that's all well belowthe average transactionprice for a new carin the United States.Right.So still a value.Again, the 26, thatwe paid, with thosefeatures you're talking about.Yeah.Ours is an SEL, which ishow most customers aregoing to buy their Sonata.But considering what it has,automatic climate control,heated seats, allthe stuff,the Advanced DrivingTechnologies, Assistance.So standard on the base car,you get automatic emergencybraking.But when you get up tothe SEL, which doesn'tcost that much, you get, what?Blindspot warning.You get blindspot warning.You get active cruise control.You get--Rear cross traffic warning.Rear cross traffic warning.You get beyond lane keep assist.You get lane centering.It like keeps the line.It keeps it beautifully.Yeah.I mean, especially onlike wide sweepers,there's nothing abrupt about it.It really knows--Better than some luxury models.Yeah, actuallybetter than Tesla.ping pong.Yeah.It does not ping pong.Yeah.It's a great valuestory and styling.And there's two power trains.There is a 1.6 turbo.And the standard one, the 2.5liter, has 190 horsepower.And the turbo has181 horsepower.So what's the advantage?It's not clearwhat's the advance.Fuel economy?Fuel economy is the sameaccording to the EPA.Both get 31 combined.So it's reallyhard to figure outwhy would therebe an upper levelengine that doesn't, atleast on the face of it,doesn't merit it.But when you look atthe numbers, the torque,and also when youdrive the two cars,the torque is much morea richer torque curve.So with the turbo,you get torquethat's readily availablefrom 1,500 RPMsall the way to high revs,whereas the regular engine ismore peaky.OK.So it depends upon the kindof driving you're doing,which oneyou have.Let me just add a little morebig picture here on the Sonata.Hyundai is showcasingtechnologiesthat they introducedon the Palisadebefore that, and on theNexo fuel cell vehicle.And that includes thepush button shifter,which we're not fans.by wire.Right?And also on higher trims,the blind spot warningthat you see--video feed in theinstrument cluster.So it's like the Honda LaneWatch where it shows a camerabut it's on both sides.And it's in theinstrument cluster,so it doesn't take overyour radio, or your nav,or anything else.Right.So it's great forspotting cyclists,for spotting if someone'sin your blind spot,actually giving thedriver more information.And another thingthat higher trims haveis kind of likea summon feature.So you can extract the carfrom a tight parking spot,or get it in there--in your garage.So you do it withthe remote key fob,and the car just goesin and out of parking.Well, I mean, we rentedone that had that feature.Did it work?It worked beautifully.OK.OK.All right.I think it's funny thatwe call it summon-like.Oh, yeah.Tesla coined that term.They did.They're becoming theKleenex of various--or the Xerox.The Band-Aid.Exactly.Yes, Teflon.The interesting thingabout this car though,and this issomething that I see,but this is sort ofa complaint that Ihave about a lot ofdifferent new carsthat come out with thissort of halo technology,is that all these coolthings that you'llsee when you read theglossy car magazines,that you'll see in the ads, thereally interesting interior,those cameras, the lighting,this really cool color.It comes in this orangey,yellow, bright, bright color.Those are only going to be soldin a tiny fraction of the car,only 11% of the cars they expectto be limited trims, whichwill have all those reallyinteresting features.Right.Right.If that.And I think people areshopping for a value.Yeah.So don't expect--we went from the onethat we rented fromHyundai, which is a limited,and it had all these features,and then got into ours, whichwe bought ourself, whichis the SEL, which is whatmost people are going to buy.And it felt to me, at least,I was a little, oh, oh, oh,it's a lot more normalthan I thought it was.The gauge clusterwasn't all screens.But I can appreciate the total.I can appreciate that, too.But if you're looking on TV,seeing the ads for this car,it's not going to bethat car that's probablygoing to be in the dealer slot.I actually like thestandard infotainment systembetter than the infotainmentsystem on the higher trim.Those get a larger screen, butyou also lose the tuning knobWe've got a questionabout that later coming upabout our opinions on those.Stay tuned.So stay tuned.So overall, on the Hyundai,we didn't talk thatmuch about how it drove.You mentioned smooth.So I found it smooth.It's funny that Gabetalked about the lowerRPMs and the torquiness of theturbo, the only complaint--I found it smooth-- acouple shifts, drivability,it was a quiet cabin.Steering was smooth and linear.So all of that.The only thing, I had topass a truck on a hill.It had pulled up.It was very slow.It was a tanker.And I needed some power.It took a little bit.It had to kick down.So maybe you're rightthat that's the oneadvantage of that turbo engine.I don't know.But overall, for normaldriving, unless youneed an immediate powerburst, it was very, very nice.I'll say, the handlingis pretty good,but the ride is a touch firm.It's not really a Subaru Legacyor a Toyota Camry kind of ride.I agree.And I like it.OK.So I actually skew towardsa slightly stiffer ride.For me, personally, it makesme feel more connected.So I really liked it.But agreed.Yeah, it doesn't isolateyou from the road at all.I noticed that, too.And it's not that thecar becomes unsettled,it's that it lets you know--Kind of, yeah.Yeah, what it's going over.I put that in the feedback, butthat's a personal preference.Yeah, yeah.So if you're lookingfor a sedan thatdoesn't look likeany other sedan,we would say, give it a try,but wait for our final verdicton this car.It's in testing right now.We put our break-in miles on it.So very soon atconsumerreports.org,we'll have all thenumbers, and we'llhave more than just ourfirst impressions here.So stay tuned for that.And more than justthe three of us.Exactly.We'll have a lot ofother people's opinions.Right.Yeah, although notthat ours aren't great.Well, ours is the onesthat matter probably.Don't belittle us.Speaking of opinionsthat matter,we love questionsfrom you folks.And you're asking us forwhat we think about things.So thank you forsending your questionsto talkingcars@icloud.com.We love video questions.We don't have anythis time, so you'regoing to have to listento me read these out.So let's go.Adam from Boston says,I recently got a new jobwith a long freewaycommute, and I'venoticed excessive road noisefrom the Pirelli Cinturato--Cinturato?Cinturato.Cinturato.P7 plus run-flat tireson my BMW 3 Series wagon.Looking at your site, thesehave a good noise rating,but I don't see separateratings for run-flat tires.I know run-flats canhave a stiffer ride.Are they usually noisier, too?And yeah, BMW loves toput run-flats on cars.Yeah, BMW wentgangbuster on run-flats.And I have these tires on my X3.And I'm on mysecond set of them.And I can tell you thatas they get worn out,they become noisier.OK.I have them on my car, and Ihave a long freeway commutethat's in Bostonmost of the time.You are Adam.Yeah.I'm not quite Adam.But I want you toanswer this question,because you're our tire expert.Yeah.So kind of in order.First of all, it soundslike Adam might have changedthe road surface he's on.He's on the freeway now.That in itself may bring outsome noise characteristicsthat he might not havehad on a previous commute.He might be working forthe Massachusetts DOT.It could be concrete versusasphalt. All of that can--They could have repaved.Right.All of that can contribute.Run-flats, in and of themselves,are not necessarily noisier.Initially, ride comfort,excessive wear, and noisewere complaints of alot of run-flat models.Particularly, Pirelliand others seemto have addressed thatin later versions.I don't know howlong he's had them.But to Gabe'spoint, we absolutelysee that as tires wear,they often get noisier.So depending on whatlevel of wear Adam has,it may be just amanifestation of themgetting less tread depth.And all tires, notjust run-flats.Yes.And that's something in alltires, not just run-flats.It's funny, people often,when they get new tires,are like, oh, my gosh,there's so much quieter.Not necessarily themodel is so much quieter.They just went froma noisy worn tireto a much quieter new tire.So all of that may weigh in.To Gabe's point, he'son his second set.If you love all other aspects--we do not rate run-flatsbecause they are so specific.There's the BMW 3 Seriessize that's a run-flat.But when we'rerating tires, we'relooking for it tocover a number of sizesacross a breadth of 40 tires permodel, or 40 sizes per model.You don't necessarily findthat in the run-flat models.They're very specificto their fitment.So we do not have ratings.So Adam, get out your quarter,and do the quarter test.I'm sure you know what that is.But if you don't, goto consumerreports.org.Absolutely.And see how to use a quarterto find out if your tires aresafe, or if you need new ones.And good luck with your commute.So Paul, fromHoughton, Texas says,I am a longtime ConsumerReports subscriber.I enjoy your show.But I wonder sometimes about howyou evaluate new technologiesand cars.Listening to you lamentover more functions goingto large touchscreensand longingfor buttons, as wedid earlier, yousay the issue is ifthe electronics go out,you will not be able to accessclimate controls, radio,et cetera.But if electronics go outin other cars, guess what?You won't be usingthose functions either.You should keep a more openmind about these changesin the industry.Well.So yeah, we are prettyagnostic about howyou reach all these functions.We don't care howthey're done, as longas you have thefacility to do themin a direct way with theleast amount of distraction.Eyes on the road.Yeah.Exactly.Hand on wheel, eye on road.But when you have atouch screen that'sthe gateway to all yourinfotainment, radio,and climate.And when that goes out,and I've experienced it,and I can tell you that it'sa very frustrating experience.We had it happen on a bunch ofFCA vehicles with the softwareupdate about a yearand a half ago.We did that.And it's not theonly brand, but whenyou can't adjust yourtemperature, or the radio,then it's really a deal breaker.Yeah, it's a distraction, too.In a regular car, if somethinggoes out, OK, so the radiowent out, or some function inthe climate system went out,but not the whole thing.Jen, what do you think here?Yeah, so I'm rightthere with Gabe.There's two things.There's the functionality,particularly for things.I think ourfrustration sometimescomes from thingsthat should be simpleand that are used frequently,but it takes six levels of menuto get to.It's not touchscreens, toGabe's point, in their ownthat we're against.Where we do see isthe reliability.There's really two things there.We have absolutely seenin our reliability ratingsa spike in problems wherepeople have completelylost their screens and allof this functionality that'sbuilt into them.So it is a real thing.And it's not infrequent.So it's typically, like you say,we had a string of FCA vehiclesthat needed a software update.We are seeing infotainmentthat just goes blank.And it really leavesthe driver without someof the truly necessary,I would say, amenities--The defroster.Right.Right.Exactly.So something interestingis I was at CES last week,and I talked to a bunchof automotive supplierswho were there, notat the cool booths,but they were sort ofoff in their little--and what I gotfrom a lot of themwas that this isbeing driven by--the desire to moveto touchscreensis not necessarily beingdriven by what consumers want.Yes, there's a smallamount of early adopterswho want their car to look liketheir phone, their computer.But a lot of this is beingdriven by the manufacturers whosee it's a lot less expensiveto install one big screenthan it is to put ina bunch of buttons.But there's-- yeah.I think we've talkedabout too,everybody now has a backupcamera, required backup camera.The screen is there anyway.So when you saymanufacturers, they'remaking use of that screen.It's there anyway.They have to have it.And I mean, there'sthat happy medium.And when you think about--I like to think about GM.I think about thatBuick Encore thatcame out that hadlike 80,000 buttons,a button for everything.And that is overkill.That's the other extreme, right?But I think GM did aparticularly good job paringthat down, the two extremes, theCadillac CUE, where everythingwas a touchscreen, versus theBuick, and then in the middlenow, they're like,OK, we'll give youbuttons for the main functions,and the screen for everythingelse.And I would say ourlament has gotten less.There's absolutelysystem sync, or whatever,have gotten better.Oh, yeah.Honda's given us back manualknobs forYeah.It is great.For simple andfrequently used items.So yeah.So speaking of things thatare simple and frequently useditems, Tim from Franklin,Massachusetts-- and by the way,I love downtown.I sometimes stopat the cake bar.There's a great bakerythere in Franklin.I love it.You might see Tim.Yeah, I might see you there.It's on the way from myparents' house to here.Anyhow, do you thinkadjustable lumbar islikely to be a bettersolution over oneof those specialtylumbar cushions?My Hyundai Ioniq hasno adjustable lumbar,and can get uncomfortableon long drives.Are lumbar cushions thesimpler and less expensivesolution to having itbuilt into your vehicle?I don't know who's going toanswer this question for us.But who could?So we're laughing because Gabeloves lumbar, particularlyfour way.Yeah.Tim, I feel your pain.I have a long commute.And in about 20minutes into the ride,I will know if this is agood seat or a bad seat.And here is time fora little confession.This lumbar support cushion--That is a lumbar cushion.Is the best $30 I'veever spent in my life.So when I need this--I never leave homeor work without it.So just in case I'mstuck with a bad seat,this will be a lifesaver.And you took a car today thathad a massage function in it,and you still brought yourlumbar cushion just in case.Just in case.It's always with me.I told you.I do want to bringup one caution.A few years ago, wewere looking at aidsto help senior citizensmaintain their drivability,either access the car.And one of themwas a cushion thatallowed them to swivel toget in and out more easily.I've seen that.And a couple of vehicleshad absolute cautionsin their owners manualsnot to use other cushionsin between yourselfand the seat.As we think about it,more and more seats,more on the passenger side,have pressure sensing,weight distribution,active head restraints,which function whensomebody's force of their bodygoes back against-- the torsogoes back against the seatback.The head restraintcome forward to helpmitigate whiplash injury.Just before you use them,make sure there's notthat functionality inyour seat, and now you'recreating somewhat of adisconnect between your torsoand the seat for anyof that function.It's not just like--in the old days,it was, don't puton a seat coverbecause it mightcover the airbags,but these seats are a lotmore technologically advanced.Right.But they might not have lumbar.So it might mean thatTim should look for.So in Tim's case, in thenext vehicle, Tim, for sure,opt for the integratedlumbar over the cushion.And make sure it's a four waylumbar, and not just a two waylumbar.See?He got that in.It might poke you inthe wrong place there.Yeah.Four way, that you getheight and advance.Yeah, everybody hasdifferent torso length.Well, that's why thoseseats have those sensors.Correct.All right.So Tim, back in business.Great.Taylor from Iowa has a question.I recently read anarticle that saidcars with modern safety systemscan require recalibrationafter even minor adjustments,including changing the wheelsizes on your car.I have a smaller set ofwheels for my winter tiresthan what I useduring warmer months.Does that mean Ihave to recalibrateeach time I swap them out?Why would thateven be necessary?Jen, why would that-- well,there are a couple of questionshere.Right.So there's a coupleof questions.One is this recalibration idea.So depending on whether youhave a camera systems, or radar,they are all calibratedto distances.So if you change your rideheight, that distance,that trigonometrydistance changes on wherethose cameras are looking.And you certainly don't wantautomatic emergency brakingsystems that now think thingsare closer, for example,than they really are.Or further away.Or further away.You want them to workcorrectly, but you alsodon't want a lot of false alertswhen you control.So that's the idea behind it.But when you'redownsizing, this ideathat Taylor's talkingabout, two different wheelsizes for winter.And the idea is that narrowerwinter tires actuallycut through snow better,so you downsize the wheel,you get a narrower taller tire.The ideal situation thereis that you're stillmaintaining the overall diameterof the tire and wheel package.So you've taken asmaller wheel, but youhave a taller sidewall, narroweraspect ratio, everything--The height of thecar is the same.The height of the car shouldbe the same if done correctly.So unless you'vealtered that, Taylor,I don't think a recalibrationwould be necessary.Now, with thatsaid, recalibrationis necessary for things likeif your windshield breaks, or--Right.So we were doinga story right now.We have an upcoming story wherewe're looking specificallyat the cost of ADASrecalibration--again, advanced driver assistsystems recalibration, repairs.They can increasefrom-- a fenderbender may require someof these recalibrations.Even now withwinter tire changes,you have tire pressuremonitoring in there,if you're recalibratingthose sensors.So there are, as wegain more safety,there is a littlebit more to tweak,or calibrate, asyou make changes,including winter tire changes.And a PSI, PSA, is tocheck those winter tiresbecause the winter time iswhen that cold weather makethat pressure godown, and exactly.Bump them up a little bit.Excellent.Great questions.Yeah.These are great questions.I think great answers, too.It's not to brag.Pats himself on the shoulder.Yeah.Or the back.So to learn more abouteverything from lumbar to tireshead to consumerreports.org.Thanks so much for joining us.And we'll talk cars next time.\n"